SignalsAZ.com Prescott News Podcast - Meet Ryan Glennan New Commercial Banker with National Bank

Episode Date: July 18, 2025

Send us a text and chime in!In this episode of Cast 11, we sit down with Ryan Glennan, the new Commercial Banker for National Bank of Arizona, serving the Flagstaff and Prescott markets. With over 20 years of experience in commercial lending, Ryan shares his journey from automotive management to community-focused banking, explaining what sets the National Bank of Arizona apart, from small business loans to hospitality and multifamily development financing.Check out the CAST11.com Website at: https://CAST11.com Follow the CAST11 Podcast Network on Facebook at: https://Facebook.com/CAST11AZFollow Cast11 Instagram at: https://www.instagram.com/cast11_podcast_network

Hey, everybody. Welcome back to Cast 11. I am here today with Ryan Glennon. He is the new commercial banker for National Bank of Arizona. Ryan, you want to tell us a little bit about your role, what you do over there. Yeah, thank you, first of all, for having me. This is great. I appreciate the opportunity to come and share my story. Yeah, I've been with National Bank of Arizona now, pretty new. I've been there about a couple months now. and really overseeing kind of the flagstaff and Prescott market for commercial lending. So, you know, anything from, you know, small business, SBA startup type loans, all the way up to, you know, multifamily development, hospitality. I mean, anything, you know, commercial real estate related can kind of do the full breadth of it. And so, you know, came to National Bank.

I was really excited about their connection. commitment to really kind of reinvigorate in the rural markets, get some new people hired and grow the team. And that's what we're doing. We're really on the offensive. So excited to be there. Awesome. So is this new for you, commercial banking or just new to National Bank of Arizona? Just new to National Bank of Arizona. I've actually been a commercial banker for over 20 years, started right out of college. And I've been a commercial lender in the Prescott market for 18, 19 of those years. So really experienced, I grew up in Prescott after college and a little bit of stint in the valley and in Milwaukee. I moved back to Prescott. And so I've been back here since

2007. That is what is so important to me is if I'm going to do business, especially a home loan, banking loan, even a car loan, I want to do business with a guy that I'm going to see at Costco on Saturday. Because at that point, it's like, you know, you see your customers everywhere you go. sure. Yeah, exactly. I mean, you said, I mean, I live here. I'm involved in the community here. I'm on some boards in the community. Launchpad Teen Center being one of them. A great organization. Yeah. So, you know, I see people, you know, not only at the grocery store or Costco, but I see them at various fundraising events or, you know, around town and different, you know, nonprofit things that I'm involved with. So really, you just want to take care of your client, you know, like you

would take care of your best friend or someone in your family, right? And, you know, no one, no one I think gets up in the morning and, you know, looks forward to to banking that day. It's awesome. It's all about the people, right? So I view kind of my job is trying to make that process as seamless as possible. I believe people do business with people. It's, you know, you'll go, you'll drive a little farther. You'll, you know, pay a little bit more if you know, the person and you really like the person, you can trust the person. It's just there's no price tag on that. It's just being able to do business with people that you're going to see all the time

or share the same, you know, the same ideals. So National Maker Arizona, how long have they been around? Because I know, of course, I've heard of them, but how long have they been here? Yeah, so they just celebrated 40 years. Actually, I think they're a little north of 40 years in business now. Gosh. They were founded in 1984 in Tucson. on and have grown to 56 branches throughout the state.

And in fact, that's kind of one thing I wanted to touch on. When you look at sort of banks or financial institutions, commitment to the Prescott area to northern Arizona, National Bank has seven branches in Yavapai County, four in Coconino County. So that's more than virtually any other bank out there. I think maybe there's one other bank that has that many branches in the area. So to have that kind of a commitment from a bank with local leadership is huge. So obviously, I would assume being a commercial banker, your commitment to business owners has to be top priority, I would assume. For sure. Yeah. It is. The National Bank shares that same commitment.

They have a lot of specialty teams within their group that can handle anything from nonprofits, medical lending, contractors, restaurants, a lot of areas that some banks tend to sort of shy away from. National Bank has actually gone all in on those and have created specialists within those who can really help navigate that process for those specific industries. In addition to that, they do an incredible job with SBA 7A loans, SBA 504 lending. In fact, I was blown away by some of the terms they were able to offer on, on SBA 7A loan. So really glad to be able to kind of have that in the war chest to be able to offer that to, you know,

particularly small local customers here in the Prescott area. That's great. Now, I've got to imagine when you were 12 years old, you were thinking about your future. It was like firemen, uh, police officer, commercial realtor. How did that happen? Yeah.

I mean, I just always wanted to write emails for a living. Yeah. No. Uh, so it happened. Really, I went to school for, actually first for automotive management. I have a degree from Yavapai College and automotive management.

Really decided I don't want to necessarily fix cars for a living and wanted to own my own business. So I thought, well, I'll go on to ASU and get my business degree and figure out what I want to do after that. Well, I got my degree and still didn't know what I wanted to do. Which happens to most people. Yeah, yeah. So M&I Bank at the time, they're now another organization, mergers and acquisitions in the industry. they had a position and they said, hey, we can send you to Milwaukee in the middle of winter in January and you can spend a couple of years there and learn how to be a commercial banker.

And it actually really appealed to me. I liked what they had to say and the career sounded exciting. I really thought I would do it for a couple of years, you know, raise some money, save some money, and then start my own business. And, you know, here I am over 20 years. later and love what I do and love helping the clients. And I think I'll be a lifer in banking. Well, what I think, you know, just chatting with you for a few minutes about this is you have that entrepreneurial spirit, spirit. You know, you wanted to own your own business. So I'm sure you

looked into that and the challenges that face business owners. You know, I just, I run a small business outside of my regular job. And it is so daunting. You just, you don't even know where to begin. sitting down with somebody and just learning like, okay, this is what I should be doing. You know, are you doing this? So, you know, the fact that you kind of have that background and understand what it takes to run a business. Yeah. Very helpful. Well, and no one, you know, kind of going back to my earlier point, no one gets into, you know, their line of work to do banking. Like, you know, no one starts their business because they're so excited to deal with the banking aspect of it, right? They started because they're good at, you know, electrical work or

or plumbing or fixing cars or whatever the case may be. So they start that business. That's what they're good at, that trade, that craft. Really, I'm there to just kind of help them navigate the banking process. Everyone, you know, needs to have a bank, needs to work with the bank. And I just want that to be as easy as possible for people. Good, very good point. So you've been in this for almost 20 years.

What are some major changes that you have seen or even minor changes that you've seen over the last, you know, even 10 years? I was thinking about that question a little bit. And unfortunately, I probably have to say regulation. Regulation, compliance. You know, after the Great Recession, obviously there was just a lot more focus on, you know, making sure that all of the regulations are abided by and that. And there were a lot of new regulations that came to be as a result of that. Well, I'm probably not a negative thing always, you know, protecting people and protecting

their investment. It's important. Absolutely. Yeah. No, it is, it is certainly, you know, there are some positive aspects to it. It's all about making sure that we're providing, you know, equal credit to everybody. I mean, a lot of things that a lot of the upstanding financial institutions were doing anyway, you know, we continue to do. But like anything, there were some bad apples, you know, before the Great Recession. And, you know, that kind of caused a little bit more. I would just say red tape for everybody, you know. So, so even though, you know, I've always felt like I've done the right thing in banking

and the organizations that I've worked for certainly, you know, do as well, there's just a lot of like red tape and checks, you know, boxes check and all that kind of stuff. Again, going back to, you know, customers don't always understand all of the things that go on behind the scenes so that we can just kind of make a simple loan to them. And so we try to simplify that process as much as possible for that. It's like Ryan, you've got a whole vault full of money. Just go fix it. We can just do a handshake.

It's, you know, and it's a day, right? Yeah. Yeah, there's mountains of paperwork and emails and approvals and stuff for, you know, virtually everything we do. And all of it, you know, is really by necessity. Well, you know, 20-some years ago, you could just buy a house with a signature and we saw where that put us. So that's, you know, you got to be careful.

and those things are in place. So you're from Prescott, you moved to Milwaukee. Why'd you come back? So the Milwaukee thing was always going to be a temporary circumstance. So it was a training program that M&I Bank had. And not a lot of banks really have those kind of training programs anymore. I guess that's another thing that's changing is the kind of old school bankers who can be a banker in the local market and have some authority and leadership to be able to do things.

has disappeared a little bit. Old school. I used to work at Pacific Bell, which is the old Ma Bell, the training that you get back in the day, they can't touch that anymore. Right. There's so much centralized processes and gathering an application and sending it off somewhere.

And it's like, well, maybe you'll get approved. Maybe it won't. You know, I still think of myself as kind of that older, you know, a little bit older generation of bankers where, you know, I can sit down and look at a financial statement and kind of figure out what we might be able to. able to do sort of on the spot there. And then, you know, that's not to say that I don't have other people that help me through the process. But it's not just kind of a throw it up against the wall

and see if it sticks sort of a thing. So I came back to Phoenix from, because I was at ASU, went to Milwaukee, came back to Phoenix. And I was there for a little over a year. And honestly, I just couldn't deal with the heat after growing up in Prescott. You know, I just didn't like, you know, not being able to go outside, you know, burn your hands on things and all that stuff for the whole summer. Not turning into dust the minute the sunlight hits you outside. Right. Yeah. So went on about a week and a half long vacation, I think, in August. And we went to Angel Fire, New Mexico, which is a ski resort town, came back, spent some time in Prescott. And then on the way back to Phoenix, it was just like, what are we? Why are we doing? Why? So we just decided at that point,

we're just going to make it work in Prescott one way or the other. Unfortunately, I was able to transfer back or up here with the bank. And then, uh, then I left and I joined a small community bank here after that. So obviously Prescott is, is super important to you. You chose to come back here. Um, parents here, all that good stuff. What are ways that you're involved in the community outside of the bank? So I'm on the board of the launch pad teen center. Um, I'm their treasurer. I'm a co-treasurer. They, they have, uh, adult and teens on the board. So it's kind of fun to, you know, be able to have a teen treasure along with you. And I've been doing that for,

geez, probably about nine years as well. And then I did some other things. I was on the board of the Arizona Bankers Association for a little while. I'm no longer on that board just to kind of focus here on the local market. I've been part of the signature series that has been going on for a few years now. I helped, was the initial committee member on that. And the Prescott Area Commercial Group I've been involved with in the past, I've been involved with helping the Prescott Area Association of Realtors with a new site search.

What I love is Launchpad. Yeah. I mean, to be able to, those kids are great there. And, you know, they brand their little store. They have, you know, and to have, it's funny, like, I can just see you in this teenager going over the books. And he's like, no, Ryan, you're wrong. Look at this number right here.

Kids know everything. Yeah. Yeah. Well, it's really a good opportunity to get to, you know, kind of share some of what I've learned with them. But, yeah, some of those teens are incredibly impressive. You know, I certainly didn't have my stuff together like they did when I was in high school. And I didn't have anything in the community available to me like that either. So it's a lot of fun.

I, you know, my daughter is now involved in the launch pad. And so it's fun to see her be, you know, part of the leadership group there as well. and just a great resource for the community. I would say that just to give them a little plug here that I don't know of any other organization that does quite so much with so little because they really make every dollar count. And the return to the community, I think, as far as keeping teens out of trouble and providing resources for teens and development opportunities for teens is huge. Yeah, I just to watch those kids. And, you know, I've dealt with people, especially working here that have been from like the, the CASA side where they're dealing with, you know, kids in foster home. And to see these kids that are, you know, they're just involved in something.

You know, get these kids involved in something and then to have mentors like you that are in there and just helping shape them to be something, you know, to better themselves. And they're just such an impressive group down there. I'm going to ask you one last question because this is always my favorite one. If you weren't a commercial banker, what do you think you'd be doing? Oh, boy. This is it, right? It changes from time to time, but maybe a pilot. Okay.

Yeah. Scooba instructor in Jamaica, that's what I would say. Yeah, exactly. A pilot would be cool. Yeah, I think it'd be fun to be a pilot. I've also thought at times in the past maybe an engineer of some sort. You know, different things like that. I like, yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. One of those. That would be super cool. Well, we're starting to get to know you a little bit, which I think is a good thing. You've been around the community forever. You obviously know what you're doing. You've been, you know, doing this for 20 years.

If you're out there and you're, you know, trying to navigate, being a business owner, understanding, you know, what does this mean to me? What do these changes mean to me? Can they just call you? They book an appointment with you? you, what's the best thing to? Yeah, absolutely. So I'll just give you my cell phone number 480 203, 4090. It is the easiest way to get a hold of me. I always have it on. I get calls, you know, all the time. Ryan, help. And the whole thing and willing to answer that, you know,

within reason. But yeah, always there. He is getting his scuba instructor certifications. Right. Yeah. Every once in a while, you know, you got to turn it off. But for the most part, I'm there. I'm available. And again, that kind of comes back to just being a person in the community. You can be there for your team. Yeah. So if you see Ryan at Costco, just stop them and say, hey, check this out for me.

Mike? Right. Yeah, exactly. Give them a call. We'll post your number in the comments too so people can reach out to you. But, you know, like I said, at the beginning of this, people do business with people. And I'm so glad that you came and, you know, came on the podcast. It is just one of those great ways to show, you know, people that are listening and watching that we have these amazing.

amazing people in our community. And you're doing great things for our residents, people moving to the area. You know, if you're, because we get lots of listeners outside of Prescott. And so if you're thinking of relocating to the Prescott community, Ryan's your guy, if you're looking to move your business, if you're looking to, you know, buy some commercial property. Yeah, absolutely. And just along those lines that we have mortgage bankers. We've, you know, obviously have deposit products. If you're if you're moving to town and you're looking for a bank, get in touch with me, I'd be happy to,

you know, put you in front of the right people. Great one-stop shop. Yep. You have it all. Well, you guys, thank you so much for tuning in.

And I'm going to try to get you back in here and do another podcast. And thanks. We'll see you next time. Thank you.